Monthly Archives: August 2016

Today in Melbourne activists from the group Whistleblowers Activist Citizens Alliance (WACA) interrupted Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during a major economic address. The protest targeted the horrific conditions which refugees are facing in Australia’s offshore detention centres in Nauru and Manus Island. The group, who had infiltrated the audience, interrupted the speech by chanting: “Malcolm Turnbull, shame on you, shut down Manus and Nauru”. One protester managed to get up on stage within just a few metres of the PM holding a sign “FFS Close the Bloody Camps”.

Protesters recently gathered at Marble Arch in London, three years after the “worst single-day killing of protesters in modern history”. On August 14, 2013, security forces opened fire on a pro-democracy sit-in that lasted for six weeks, following a military coup that ousted Egypt’s first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi. According to a report published by Human Rights Watch: “At first light on August 14, security forces using armored personnel carriers and snipers fired on the crowd with live ammunition shortly after playing a recorded announcement to clear the square through loudspeakers. Police provided no safe exit and fired on many who tried to escape”. Amnesty international described it as “Egypt’s darkest day”. Following the massacre, use of the Rabaa symbol, denoted by holding up four fingers, became widespread by pro-democracy supporters around the world as a symbol of defiance. Continue reading →